It feels like an eternity ago that I bought the tickets for this show. I sweated it out as per usual in the online queues and thankfully managed to get two standing tickets to see The XX in Amsterdam. I’d never seen them before, only Jamie XX a handful of times, so I was beyond excited. I’ve loved the band for ages yet never managed to catch them live and so begun the trek from Nijmegen (close to the border of Germany) up to Amsterdam. I arrived at Biljmer ArenaA, which is the train stop for the AFAS Live venue, (up until January named the Heineken Music Hall) and the Ajax football stadium, which I had visited once before to see the Netherlands play Belgium in the Lowlands football derby. The area feels a bit like the O2 arena in london, with heaps of restaurants and bars around. The venue itself was nice, a lot smaller than the arenas in London, giving a perfect intimate feel. But, something I hadn’t experienced before at a venue, was a necessity to purchase tokens to buy beer. Such a pain and meant I had to drink more than I would’ve usually to use up my leftover tokens (the horror!!)

Time for the support, an American RnB singer called Kelela. She was good, if not all that memorable, and not strictly to my taste, but I appreciated her nonetheless. Time flew by and then Jamie walked on stage and started fiddling with an array of knobs and buttons and the sample from ‘Say Something Loving’ oozed into the atmosphere. Shivers. Genuine Shivers. Never before has live music managed to do that to me. I think it was the mixture of excitement and the atmospheric delight which is their music. The setlist was incredible from here on out, and if one thing was obvious, it was that they have released great song after great song; album tracks being just as impressive as the released singles. I loved every single minute and the encore of ‘On Hold’ into ‘Intro’ finishing with ‘Angels’ was just magical. Honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever been to and I make it my mission to go to as many as possible. I’m seeing Two Door Cinema Club in a few weeks in Utrecht which will never live up to The XX but such is life. Thankfully, I’m going to Nos Alive in Lisbon in July where The XX are headlining, so I’ll see them again in no time, and it can not come soon enough!